holy crap

has it been a long time since I posted.

Okay, so I apologize for my hiatus. There is work to be done at the moment, so there won't be much to post other than to copy my description of my return to Europe from the e-mail I just sent out.

Let me just say, to anyone who may read this that I may be a bit more sporadic in my posting than I was last term. The computer I had here, ailing since October, has finally lost it's protracted battle with being a lump of pure crap. May it rest in peace.

So here's my copy and paste job. Enjoy.

So I landed in Frankfurt about 11 am local time last saturday. I had seventy Euro to my name. I went to the trainstation to see about getting to Brno. The train ticket cost 130 Euro. I despaired.

I walked outside and spotted a bus line office across the street and I hauled my heavy ass bags over to see if it were open. Had it been closed, despair would really have set in. It closed in twenty minutes. I asked about going to Brno. They said no. How about Prague, said I. Well, yes, there is a bus leaving for Prague at ten tonight. It costs 41 Euro. Awesome.

I bought the ticket and proceeded to sit on my luggage in the incredibly cold Frankfurt trainstation for several, several hours. I read two books, paid too much for a liter of coke, and eventually broke down and paid too much for a cheeseburger. I ate my candycanes. I did not fall asleep despite my having been awake since four pm frankfurt time the day before. The twenty-four hour mark came and went. I blinked a lot.

I caught my bus and had to have my german skills put to the test to allow both my bags to accompany me without paying anything extra. Eight sleepless hours later I arrive at the prague bus station. it is cold. There is a bus leaving for Brno in one hour. The exchange office doesn't open for three hours. I have no crowns. The ticket cannot be paid for in euros (price, approximately three euros). I am boned. In desperation I try to withdraw two hundred crowns from the ATM. It works. I take the two and a half hour train ride in delirium, watching the czech movie like I know what's going on. Free hot chocolate.

By the time I reach Brno, The exchance offices are open. I get six hundred crowns for my last twenty Euro and catch a cab to my dorm. I throw my stuff down. Stare at walls. Eventually my friends still in town rouse themselves and we walk over to the Yellow bar. I eat a steak and have an extremely disappointing, flat czech beer. I struggle to stay awake until the sun goes down (approximately 4:30). Finally, at six pm I lay down to sleep. I sleep for twenty hours.

The next day I make my way to the International student's office and it is closed. I return days later to learn that I will be receiving no stipend for January. I await finding money in my bank account. I try to withdraw money daily. I read voraciously. I borrow money from friends. I watch the entirety of a british sitcom on someone else's computer. It will not play any of the plethora of DVDs I brought along. There are two dozen people in the building. Things are dull and a mite depressing. It snows nightly but never accumulates.

MUSIC: (in my head) Shout: whowever the hell did that song.